Ok so I have this ancient Goulds shallow well pump...

I recently bought a cottage and this old timer is in the basement. From my snooping it looks to be the original pump from under the kitchen sink. From research I've done the big bulbous head is a small storage tank with a valve on the side that maintains a small air space inside. There's also a newer small bladder tank teed off the outlet. This pump is quiet and works perfectly--plus I have an untouched spare on the shelf nearby.
I have a couple questions about this thing:
--Should I disable the internal storage tank by removing the air valve? I plan to re-plumb this rig and get rid of the tiny bladder tank & place the pump on a 20gal horizontal bladder tank. Should I be concerned about that air space inside the pump?
--Can I install a new pressure switch (or adjust this one) and do better than the current 20-40psi?
--Is there anything I can do about the pump sweating? I don't have AC but there is a dehumidifer in the utility room running 24/7. It's cool in the basement--but the water temp is 40Â° so it gets very wet when flowing a lot of water.

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That's a good old pump. The plumbing is a complicated mess! I'd simplify the plumbing and replace what I could with PVC. Since you are going to install a larger tank, I'd remove the AVC control and fittings from the side of the pump and plug it or install a street "L" and a pipe plug for priming the pump. Remove the small Well-X-Trol tank and cutoff valve and connect the larger tank in it's place. I'd remove the pressure switch from where it is and plug the hole. Then I'd mount the pressure switch as near to the new tank as possible. I'd use the existing pressure and adjust the long screw under the PS cover to raise the pressure. Be careful not to raise the pressure to the point the pump can't build enough cutoff pressure. NOTE: I wouldn't replace the pressure switch until I am forced too as the replacement switches aren't as good as the old ones! I'd replace the drain connections on the pump and the suction line with just pipe plugs. The more the connections, fittings and valves the more chance for a problem.

The more the connections, fittings and valves the more chance for a problem.

Click to expand...

Hence the stupid bucket for catching drips.

Thanks for the roadmap. Sort of confirms my plan--except the part about using pvc. I was planning to pipe the pump & tank "assembly" with galvanized in order to make it as rock solid and freeze-resistant as possible. I have pipe dies and have done this before. Bad idea?

Another thing just came to mind. I think this pump has an internal check valve. Should I make any change there?

I like using threaded PVC for the male ends and brass for female ends.

As for sweating, the best you can do is to enclose the whole unit so that there are no air exchanges. Once the air has dried out, as long as you don't let in more moist air, you won't have a sweating issue.